Attorneys who have poured money into expensive and robust Internet marketing campaigns are scratching their heads and wondering if their law firm marketing efforts are now obsolete. Google’s big announcement of their new Internet search platform, Google Instant, has lawyers worried that their optimized keywords, pay-per-click keywords, and the months they have spent cultivating organic search engine results have all gone down the drain, as Google Instant revolutionizes how people are searching.

Google’s most current algorithmic iteration, “Google Instant,” made its debut on September 8, 2010, potentially changing how people locate websites on the Internet. Google Instant essentially “predicts” what people are looking for as they type in their query into Google, directing you to what they believe you’re looking for. So what does this mean for Internet marketing, SEO campaigns, and organic search engine results?

Law firms who are seeking top placement on search engine result pages (SERP) often retain law firm marketers who optimize their client’s websites for Internet search. The law firm marketers will optimize for long-tailed key words, in addition to short keywords, which are the most competitive in the Internet real estate arena. Short keywords are also highly valuable amongst pay-per-click advertising, where law firm marketers participate in a bidding war for the “prized” keywords, which can become very expensive.

To combat this, lawyer marketing agencies optimize for short keywords and long-tailed keywords, to avoid competition and to catch searchers later in their research cycle, when they are closer to a decision. These long-tailed key words consist of the highly competitive terms combined with other more specific terms, which people may search for. For example, “West Palm Beach Florida car accident lawyer” would be considered a long-tailed keyword, unlike the competitive short keyword “car accident attorney.”

Where lawyers and law firms may run into problems is when their prospective clients use Google Instant to search for an attorney. If the law firm hasn’t optimized for certain terms and keywords, which are automatically filled in by Google as the searcher is typing in their query, the lawyer’s website could be missed altogether by the searcher. Google Instant essentially, tells the searcher what they are looking for and points them in a certain direction based on the keywords Google determines are highly searched and the most relevant.

It’s still too early to say how Google Instant is going to affect rankings, change Internet search behavior or influence what terms become more popular in the future. The best plan is to wait and see how this Google Instant affects how websites are found, but until then, lawyers should retain a knowledgeable law firm marketing and SEO company to elevate your law firm to the top Internet real estate. To successfully market on the Internet, law firms and attorneys need to have a vast arsenal of marketing techniques, which includes hiring an SEO company steeped in attorney web marketing. To achieve high visibility and top rankings on SERP, law firms are going to have to utilize hearty SEO campaigns.

The attorney marketing and law firm advertising experts at CEPAC Inc. can help your law firm navigate the ever-changing Internet marketing arena. The renowned lawyer marketing agency offers highly effective websites, newsrooms, Internet marketing, advertising and social media campaigns; along with more traditional lawyer marketing approaches including television, radio and print advertising.

For more information on website design for attorneys, law firm marketing, SEO for law firms or Smart News Technology, contact Rene Perras or visit Cepac.com.